(New York) US Federal Police on Tuesday raided the offices of a New York police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the home of its flamboyant president who has often found himself in conflict with city leaders because of his incendiary tweets and hard-line tactics.
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Michael R. Sisak
Associated Press
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An FBI spokesperson said the searches were part of an investigation, without providing further details.
Union leader Ed Mullins, who is also a sergeant in the NYPD, faces disciplinary action for posting official police documents on Twitter last year regarding the arrest of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter during a demonstration in connection with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Mr. Mullins is also suing the department, which he accuses of trying to muzzle him.
Asked about the searches on Tuesday, the mayor of Blasio said he did not have enough information to be able to comment.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association represents approximately 13,000 serving and retired New York Police sergeants. The rank of sergeant is higher than that of detective, but lower than that of lieutenant and captain.
Under Mr. Mullins’ presidency for the past two decades, the union has demanded better wages – resulting in increases of 40% – and held a prominent place in the anti-reform movement.
Mr. Mullins appears periodically on channels such as Fox News and Newsmax. He also controls the union’s Twitter account, which is followed by some 45,000 people.
In 2018, Mr Mullins called for the resignation of former commissioner James O’Neill and department head Terence Monahan after several police officers were sprayed with water. Mr. O’Neill had replied that Mr. Mullins was a “keyboard gangster” who rarely participated in the activities of the department.
Last year Mr Mullins was condemned for calling the city’s former health commissioner Dr Oxiris Barbot a ‘bitch’ and Rep. Ritchie Torres ‘fucking first class’.
Doctor Barbot had refused to hand over masks to the police during the first days of the pandemic. Mme Torres had called for an investigation into a possible police work-to-rule in September 2020.
Mme Torres, who is a lesbian, had called Mr Mullins’ tweet homophobic.
In 2019, Mullins hinted in a radio interview that Tessa Majors, a college student murdered in a park, had gone there to buy marijuana. Police eventually arrested three teenagers and indicated that Mr.me Majors had been the victim of a robbery.
M’s familyme Majors had felt that it was “deeply inappropriate” for Mr. Mullins to blame the victim in this way.
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